A new type of station belonging to a class known as Internet of Things (IoT) devices are emerging for use in wireless computer networks. These IoT devices are typically small dedicated-use computers which have wireless network connectivity, with sensors or connectivity to other information processing systems, and which communicate information to a central or distributed series of host computers. Examples of IoT devices include home security camera and entry control systems, biomedical monitors for blood pressure or blood glucose, pacemakers with remotely accessible event logs, electrical distribution systems such as smart electric meters, and many other such dedicated purpose devices.
An IoT device for a wireless local area network (WLAN) typically has an OSI (Open System Interconnect) layer 2 address, such as a Media Access Controller (MAC), and an OSI layer 3 address, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, which is statically assigned or dynamically assigned such as by a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. The MAC address is typically printed on the device or is otherwise publicly accessible.
An issue specific to IoT devices is the requirement for secure registration of the device to a particular network. In a prior art IoT Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) association sequence, the IoT device makes itself “discoverable”, such as it may transmit association requests to a particular Service Set IDentifer (SSID) of an Access Point (AP) by sending WLAN association request packets, so that a wireless access point (AP) is able to identify the station by MAC address and associate with it into the infrastructure. However, in the case of an IoT device which contains proprietary information and is intended to be used in a secure manner, this type of open association compromises the security of the network and the security of the data the IoT devices accesses. One type of security risk is the use of the MAC address for registration into a network different from an original network, or registration of an alien device into a network. This type of security risk occurs because it is possible to “clone” a new station onto an existing WLAN by cloning (copying) the MAC address of an existing station as the MAC address of the new station, thereby authenticating the station for use in the WLAN by its trusted MAC address. It is desired to provide a protocol for the secure registration of an IoT device to prevent the use or re-registration of the device to other networks. It is also desired to provide an uncloneable registration of an IoT device into a wireless network.